Celebrated actress Thembi Mtshali-Jones boasts a performing arts career in music, theatre and television spanning more than 40 years, making her a household name in South Africa and leading to a Lifetime Achievement Award last year. Even late president Nelson Mandela noted that watching her TV series was his major entertainment while in prison.

Cape Town Opera integrates opera, Broadway musical and traditional Xhosa song and dance to tell Mandela’s moving life story. The story begins with the tribal rites of passage of royally descended 16-year-old Mandela and ends with his release after 27 years of unjust incarceration. First staged in South Africa in 2010, the dynamic production has since toured internationally to great acclaim, including performances in London, Cardiff, Munich, Dublin and Ravenna. The Cape Town Opera brings together the finest vocalists in South Africa, receiving the Best Chorus accolade at the UK’s 2013 International Opera Awards.

The most anticipated music event of the year
Hailed by Rolling Stone as among Africa’s “most beloved artists”, Senegalese-born Youssou N’Dour and his group, the Super Étoile de Dakar, present the stunning opening show for this year’s World Cultures Festival. N’Dour’s authentic sound has not only blown away one continent but won him a devoted fan base in Europe, the USA, and across the world. For his Hong Kong concert, the celebrated musician has handpicked a number of top singers and dancers from Africa to perform with his ensemble – a sterling line-up not to be missed!

N’Dour’s soaring voice has been described by The New York Times as “sweet, lithe and resolute” and lauded by Peter Gabriel, world-renowned singer and co-founder of the WOMAD festival, as “liquid gold… like the sun breaking through the clouds”. By fusing traditional Senegalese music with jazz, soul, Latin, rock and other styles, N’Dour initiatedmbalax, a unique Afropop genre featuring intricate, rhythmic patterns that captivated the Western music scene. Over the decades, N’Dour has also collaborated with numerous international artists including Peter Gabriel, Neneh Cherry, Sting, Lou Reed, Branford Marsalis and Spike Lee.
Singer and entertainer, poet, politician and oral historian rolled into one, N’Dour is an active social campaigner and a stirring voice for positive change, with his powerful songs transcending geographical, religious and cultural frontiers. As N’Dour’s commendation for the 2013 Polar Music Prize noted, “his voice encompasses an entire continent’s history and future, blood and love, dreams and power”.

A mega-sensational concert starring one music legend paying tribute to three more! Angélique Kidjo, recognised by Time magazine as “Africa’s premier diva”, made her début in Hong Kong in 2015. Then, her phenomenal voice, stage presence and energy left the rapturous audience wanting more. Now, the superstar is set to return. For her second appearance, she salutes the inspirational genius of a trio of African and Latin American divas: Celia Cruz, Miriam Makeba, and Nina Simone. Each had their own distinctive style, which Kidjo fuses with her own to provide an unparalleled musical encounter that extols, elevates, and exhilarates. Born in Benin in West Africa, Kidjo started performing on stage at the age of six. Her music blends African pop, Caribbean zouk, Congolese rumba, jazz, gospel and Latin styles. She has received numerous honours and awards over her career, including being named one of the Top 100 Most Inspiring Women in the World by The Guardian. In 2016, just a year after collecting her second Grammy, she received a third for her SINGS album, recorded together with the Luxembourg Philharmonic Orchestra.

Sona Jobarteh was born into one of the five principal griot families in West Africa. Jobarteh’s own extraordinary talent and dedication have helped her to become the first female kora virtuoso, breaking the male-dominated hereditary tradition. Jobarteh started to learn the kora at the age of four from her brother Tunde Jegede. She went on to study the cello, piano, harpsichord and composition at the Royal College of Music and Purcell School for Young Musicians in the UK. She joined Jegede̓s African Classical Music Ensemble and toured the world, sharing a stage with Diabaté and with the BBC Symphony Orchestra.

“One of the most musically inspiring groups still left on the planet”
— Mick Jagger, The Rolling Stones

“Intricate, hypnotic, beautiful. And if you’re in the right frame of mind, mesmerising”
— Anthony Bourdain, Chef, Author, and TV personality
Enter a magical Moroccan soundscape first created more than 1,000 years ago
Jajouka is a Sufi Muslim village in the mountains of northern Morocco and home to an amazing musical tradition over 1,000 years old. Here, hereditary musicians employ local instruments such as the ghaita (double reed),lira (bamboo flute), gimbri (fourstringed lute), bendir (hand drum) and tebel (double-skinned drum) to conjure up intoxicating ritual music. Works are interwoven with complex rhythms and melodic themes that transport listeners to a transcendent realm. From the 1950s onwards, the multi-patterned sound has inspired Western avant-garde painters, writers and musicians, including Brion Gysin, Paul Bowles, William Burroughs, Brian Jones, the Rolling Stones and Ornette Coleman, to journey to Jajouka. They in turn have helped spread the village’s special musical heritage internationally.
Viewed as an inherited calling, Jajouka performers begin their training at a young age and take a lifetime to reach the level of a master. For generations, the Attar family served as prestigious court musicians to the Moroccan Sultans. In 1982, Bachir Attar took over the Master Musicians of Jajouka from his father. The group has gone on to achieve global acclaim, undertaking world tours and recordings with many celebrated artists, and receiving Canada’s Prix Miroir for World Music in 2008. The ensemble’s repertoire includes traditional and newly arranged works, along with pieces specifically preserved by the Attar family. A wonderful opportunity to experience first-hand the enigmatic sounds that have entranced so many other legendary artists!